Legislation to combat dangerous driving has done nothing to address the circumstances that caused a young girl to be killed on a pedestrian crossing, according to the Magistrate who handled the case.Edward King spoke out after the Road Traffic Amendment Act 2012 was passed last month. It creates new traffic offences including causing death or grievous bodily harm by careless driving.However, Mr King said fresh legislation to make it illegal for vehicles to by-pass stationary buses when they are not in a lay-by is needed in order to prevent another death such as that of six-year-old Tyaisha Cox in 2003.He also called for all pedestrian crossings to be moved well back from bus stops.When he introduced the Amendment Act on April 27, Transport Minister Derrick Burgess reminded MPs about the tragic case of Tyaisha, who died after being knocked down on a pedestrian crossing outside Purvis Primary School.“The driver of that car that struck little Tyaisha was prosecuted for driving without due care and attention and was acquitted of all charges in 2005,” said the Deputy Premier.However, responding to the news, Mr King, who presided over the trial of the driver, hairdresser Melanie Wedgwood, said the new bill “does absolutely nothing to eradicate the circumstances which led to the tragic death of Tyaisha”.Although the girl’s parents welcomed the law amendments, Mr King wrote a Letter to the Editor of The Royal Gazette [on page 4] saying: “Tyaisha’s death resulted from her being struck on a pedestrian crossing outside Purvis Primary School. Why? The reason has not been addressed by the creation of ‘new’ offences. On the evidence of the prosecution, Melanie Wedgwood was found not guilty of driving without due care and attention on the occasion. Charged under any of the ‘new’ offences, the result would have been the same.“Wedgwood did not pull out her car from behind the bus which was stationary; she simply by-passed the bus, an act which was not, and is not to this day, unlawful in Bermuda.“The major contributors, in that incident, were the result of there being no bus lay-by and that the bus stop was situated on the pedestrian crossing itself, causing the bus to stop with its ‘nose’ over the crossing. Those were the factors which the legislators ought to have addressed and remedied.”He went on to write: “That fundamental bus stop / pedestrian crossing flaw still exists at many places around this Island, including crossings at the junction of Loyal Hill and Middle Road, Devonshire; outside the A.M.E. Church at Shelley Bay, Hamilton Parish; and in the vicinity of the entrance to Grotto Bay Hotel, Hamilton Parish.”And he added: “Following the outcome of the Wedgwood trial, a large segment of our residents clamoured for the enactment of legislation that would have made it unlawful for motor vehicles to by-pass any bus stationary at a bus stop not located within a bus lay-by.“That specific piece of legislation, along with the locating of all pedestrian crossings well back from bus stops / lay-bys, would definitely be the proper steps to be taken to ensure that another tragedy, like Tyaisha’s, never again occurs in Bermuda.”At the end of Ms Wedgwood’s trial, Mr King implored the Government, Road Safety Council and Corporations of Hamilton and St George’s to “leave no stone unturned” in making the necessary law changes.However, since then, he said: “Nothing has changed but time.”